Footsteps
by SurferGurl14
Summary: AU. Hakura has one of her infamous plans and this time Hikari is at the mercy of the plot. First take the annual Halloween game, place a dare on Hikari to spend the night in the 'haunted' hotel room. Then dare Shinji in after her. Oneshot. Ikarishipping!


**A/N: Happy Halloween! Here's a Halloween Ikarishipping fic!**

**Footsteps:**

_Creak._

_Creak_.

Hikari stopped in her place, frozen, and closed her eyes. Secretly she prayed for the eerie sounds of the floorboards to stop.

For a moment, there was pure silence that Hikari surely was thankful for.

_Creak_.

Her eyes flew open. She wasn't moving.

This could only mean one thing…

There was someone else there.

"Satoshi?" she called. "Shuu?"

A voice behind her growled, "Is that _really_ who you expected?"

* * *

Earlier that night, Hikari had been bursting with excitement. Jun's Halloween party was supposed to be the party of the year. And it was but for Hikari it was a drag that her two best friends were late! She had been resorted to hanging out with Satoshi and Shuu. Satoshi was Kasumi's boyfriend of two years and Shuu was Hakura's on/off boyfriend. At the moment they were off.

Taking black eyeliner, she carefully refreshed her faded whiskers and cat nose to match her leopard costume. Looking herself over in the mirror, Hikari saw the leopard print dress, tightened the whole way stopping at her mid-thigh, with black tights concealing the rest of her legs and black high heeled ankle boots. Her cat ears headband let a few of her still warm, freshly curled hairs touch her face. Hikari tagged on her pair of lace black gloves that matched her shoes.

The door of the bathroom flew open.

Kasumi and Haruka were so late! She had been by herself at Jun's party and at the mercy of Kengo for about an hour until Satoshi had saved her!

Hikari threw make-up at her newly arrived friends. "You guys are so late! I've been bored out of my mind!"

Hakura laughed, "Sorry, it took Kasumi a long time to get ready!"

Kasumi had dressed like a mermaid, with a light blue dress and scaly, metallic leggings. Seashells hung from her neck and a band of silver starfish were wrapped around the top her head. Haruka proudly proclaimed that it was her that took on the deed of tackling Kasumi's ever present ponytail.

Haruka, on the other hand, was dressed up as a butterfly. Hikari suspected it was because of Shuu. Strike that. Hikari _knew_ it was because of Shuu and his strange admiration is butterflies. She was wearing a red dress with silver wings on her back and her red bandana always in her hair. A silver belt was wrapped around her waist and two silver bracelets were tight on her wrist and wrapped around her neck was a necklace with a black butterfly with a shot of silver struck through it.

Originally their plan had been, after Jun's party, to go trick or treating and then watch a monster movie marathon at Haruka's but it seemed to Hikari, from Kasumi's face, that there was something else in mind.

Hikari decided to ignore the feeling. After discovering Satoshi had left the party from Kengo, Kasumi pulled them outside, saying the party was practically over.

* * *

Outside, cold wind stung their noses and the dark sky was surprisingly comforting.

When Kasumi lead them a different way, Haruka became suspicious.

"Where are we going, Kasumi?"

Kasumi nervously turned around and gave her friends an apologetic look.

"Kasumi, where are you taking us?" Hikari stopped and put her hand on her hip.

"Well," Kasumi fumbled with the right words, "Satoshi asked me for all of us to meet at his house after the party for an annual Halloween game."

Haruka's eyes narrowed into slits. "What kind of game? Kasumi! Shuu better not be there!"

"I'm not sure," Kasumi admitted. "But please! Can we go? If Shuu is there, we can always prank him!"

Haruka threw an apple at her.

"Hey! No attacking the driver!" Kasumi yelled.

Hikari interjected a polite cough, "And if Shinji is there?" Hikari didn't recall seeing Shinji at Jun's party because if he was there, she would have seen him with Shuu and Satoshi. But just in case…

Haruka and Kasumi both looked at their friend. Shinji was the third to that trio; Satoshi, Shuu and Shinji. The whole school believed that Hikari loathed Shinji and Shinji's feelings for her were just as mutual. Their classmates described the relationship between Shinji and Hikari lethal. Their hatred for each other began back in junior high when Shinji referred to Hikari as 'the too optimistic, annoying cheerleader' when she was in hearing range and the dislike had lasted for five years and was still going. But Haruka, being the lovey-dovey schoolgirl she is, always secretly believed that Hikari and Shinji secretly had feelings for each other. Both just had too much pride to admit it.

That's when Haruka had the idea.

"We should totally go to Satoshi's place! Whether Shinji and Shuu are there or not!"

Kasumi threw Haruka a curious look, but by the expression on her face, Kasumi knew that Haruka had just come up with one of her infamous plans and that Hikari was at the mercy of the plot this time.

When Kasumi, Hikari and Haruka barged through the door Satoshi was sitting in his living room watching TV. He was still in his costume of Sir Aaron. Shuu had just stepped out of the kitchen with what looked like a can of beer, wearing his costume which was a suit.

"Ah underage drinking," Hikari said rather pointedly.

Shuu grinned and opened the can, "For your information Hikari, this is my first. I'm not drunk…yet."

Haruka approached Shuu, took the beer from his hands, set it on the table and dragged him into the nearest room.

"What is she doing?" Satoshi observed.

"Probably proclaiming her love for him," Kasumi teased.

Satoshi turned his attention back to the television, "Well she better not be proclaiming her love in my bed. Anyway you guys are late, we already sent almost everyone else on their way."

"Want to explain this game to us?" Hikari asked.

At that moment Shuu and Hakura stepped out of the room.

"The annual Halloween game," Shuu explained. "A bunch of us meet in a certain place and think of theme and then people are dared to do something with that theme. So this year's theme is staying the night, so we dared Nozomi to spend the night in the abandoned haunted lighthouse. Who actually spend the whole night will win."

Kasumi was skeptical, "How do you know if they spent the night?"

"We have people going around for us," Satoshi called from his place on the couch.

Shuu clapped his hands, "So Hikari, are you in?"

"Why not?"

Shuu smirked and Hakura giggled. "You are going to spend the night in room 714 of the Cerulean Hotel, the rumored haunted room."

Satoshi grinned and threw her the key to the room. "Another thing we forgot to mention, this dare is in twos. So we'll be sending someone in there with you, since there's only like five of us left, it'll probably be one of us."

Hikari caught the key and grabbed Kasumi's car keys. "Fine by me. I'll win."

Kasumi watched out of a window as Hikari pulled out of Satoshi's driveway and sped away. After the car was out of sight, she pounced on Hakura and Shuu. "Okay, what's going on?"

Hakura was bursting with excitement. "Well Shuu said that they hadn't sent Shinji out yet so we'll send him to the room 714 with Hikari and see what happens."

Satoshi got up and stood next to Kasumi, "What are you expecting to happen?"

"Hakura," Shuu interjected, "has some crazy idea that Shinji and Hikari are going to fall in love and get together while they are stuck in the hotel room."

"Are you insane?" Kasumi asked her friend. "How do we know they won't kill each other?"

"Because Kasumi, after we send Shinji to the hotel room, we won't be playing. We'll be watching them!" Hakura exclaimed.

Satoshi blinked, "Now you've completely lost me. We're not playing? And how are we gonna watch them. I'm not sneaking through the vents in the hotel."

A smirk tugged on Shuu's lips. "We won't need to. There are cameras in all the hotel rooms, we'll just watch those."

"Again how do 'we' plan on doing that?" Kasumi asked, adding air quotes around we.

"My father owns the hotel, how do you think we got the keys to the room?" Shuu said. He was interrupted by a knock on the door. "About time he showed up."

Satoshi answered the door, "Shinji! We were starting to think you didn't care about us enough to come."

Shinji, wearing a suit and his hair slightly messed up stepped in, "Whatever. Where am I going?"

_He looks slightly drunk_, Kasumi observed. _Do we really want to send him to the same hotel room as Hikari?_

"You will be spending the night in room 714 of the Cerulean Hotel." Hakura handed him the key and pushed him out the door.

"What about us, Shuu? We've been winners of this game for the last three years!" Satoshi yelled.

Shuu looked at the girls, "I think watching them counts. The camera room in my father's hotel is a bit creepy and we can say that there weren't any places left so the four of us had to go, and we weren't scared out because of Hakura's face."

"Because my face is so beautiful, right Shuu?" Hakura asked.

Shuu took a sip of his beer, "Sure. Let's go with that."

* * *

Hikari rubbed her arm as the elevator raised her to the dreaded room. Shuu had told them the story of the hotel room during the bonfire on the beach. Shuu explained that there was a pair of newlyweds that checked in but one day the bride walked in on her husband getting it on with the maid and killed them both in a fit of rage and then killed herself in a fit of despair. The bride still haunted the room, destroying all loves that ever set foot in the room because in that room the bride had lost her love. Kasumi, Shuu, Satoshi had laughed. Hakura had actually started crying, feeling bad for the bride which made Shuu regret telling the story. Hikari has just stared into the fire, wondering if the story was true and whether the bride did haunt the room.

Hikari also remembered that as she started into the fire, there was a moment that the fire's spark went down and she saw Shinji's eyes staring into hers. The look wasn't angry or cold as many of their stares were. It had been nice, warm. They gazed at each other until the flame sparked back up and separated their eyes. She blushed and took her attention to her friends who were acting all lovey-dovey. For a moment she had wondered if she and Shinji could ever be like that.

After that Hikari had blamed that thought on the heat of the fire.

She hated Shinji, end of story.

A ding snapped Hikari out of her memories and back into reality.

With a deep breath, Hikari stepped out and shakily drew the key from her back pocket. Sliding the card into its slot, Hikari touched her thigh and felt her phone. The light changed to green and the door clicked and the card gave Hikari access into the room.

Hikari hurriedly turned on the lights. She felt that with the lights on, some sort of comforting sound and all the doors closed, she would be safe.

Slamming the bathroom door and closing the curtains, Hikari fumbled with the remote control. She turned on every lamp and then sat down on the bed. It was a honeymoon suite, meaning one heart-shaped bed. Hikari flipped the channel, avoiding all the scary programs and putting it on a promising children's cartoon.

* * *

Shuu, Satoshi, Kasumi and Hakura strutted into the hotel using the back way to avoid being spotted by Shinji, who had not arrived.

"Probably got wasted on the way," Shuu predicted. In the camera room, Shuu ordered the watchman to turn all the cameras on in room 714 and then relieve himself of duty.

Shuu cracked his knuckled, "Alright gentleman and Kasumi, let's let the fun begin."

After watching Hikari indulge herself in a cartoon, Satoshi was practically asleep and Shuu angry.

"This is boring!"

Hakura fiddled with her thumbs, "Well, where's Shinji?"

"Probably getting drunk, he'll be here before midnight. So how about in the time we have we mess with Hikari?" Shuu suggested.

"No!" Kasumi and Hakura yelled simultaneously.

Shuu swore and headed toward the door, "Sticks in the mud."

He slammed the door as he left and Satoshi let out a loud snore.

With a sly smile, Shuu slip a key in the keyhole and stepped into the basement. Where the lighting switched were located.

_Let's see if we can have fun with this_, Shuu speculated.

Shuu searched throughout all the numbers until he stumbled on the one he was looking for, room 714.

He switched the switch the other way. "Oops."

He shut the door on his way up and went back into the camera room.

Kasumi went right for his throat, "The lights just went out in Hikari's room. What did you do?"

"Nothing," he pleaded, "I just went in the front to see if I saw Shinji's car. No sign of it by the way." Shuu shrugged off Kasumi as if he did nothing wrong.

Shuu went to the control panel as Hakura and Kasumi started whispering and shut down the sound so that they couldn't hear what was going on in the room. Next he told the girls he was going to go grab a drink but headed up to room 714 and placed a recorder outside the room. The recording was an eerie woman's voice he had grabbed to scare Hakura, but it would be of much better use in this situation.

* * *

Hikari twiddled her fingers, intertwining them and ripping them apart all in one quick motion. She needed something, anything to calm her nerves.

So far there was no paranormal activity.

Hikari went digging through the fridge where she found a bottle of champagne. Guess some couples like spending their honeymoon in a haunted room.

Unscrewing the cork out, she grabbed a glass. _Only a couple of glasses_, Hikari told herself. _Just to calm my nerves._

Watching the sparkling wine fall into her glass, Hikari felt a surge of relief. She took the glass to her lips and took small sips but those sips turned into gulps. Without her realizing it, she was drinking glass after glass.

When Hikari put the glass down and looked at the bottle, it was half empty. She was _a little_ drunk.

Smiling, she jumped on the bed. Suddenly the lights went out and the TV shut off.

Hikari's head shot up as her mind, consumed with alcohol, was slowly processing what was happening. She rubbed her eyes.

_Why now?_

Hikari stayed where she was on the bed. Then she heard a faint sound, moaning.

_A woman was moaning._

She quickly grabbed the nearest and closet to a lethal weapon: a lamp. She slowly picked herself up and swung one leg over the edge of the bed and jumped a little bit in front so she was out of reach in case something as hiding out under the bed.

Noticing the moaning was coming more from the entrance door, Hikari backed herself against the closed bathroom door.

Then the moaning stopped. Out of nowhere, all the sound ceased.

Curtains hung heavily covering the window right next to the bathroom door.

_Thud._

Something hit the window and Hikari screamed and opened the bathroom door, abandoning the lamp on the ground.

Suddenly she heard a door open and slam shut. Hikari's heart was beating hard.

Her breath was barely audible. She moved quietly, except the floor gave away her movements.

_Creak._

_Creak_.

Hikari stopped in her place, frozen, and closed her eyes. Secretly she prayed for the eerie sounds of the floorboards to stop.

For a moment, there was pure silence that Hikari surely was thankful for.

_Creak_.

Her eyes flew open. She wasn't moving.

This could only mean one thing…

There was someone else there.

"Satoshi?" she called. "Shuu?"

A voice behind her growled, "Is that _really_ who you expected?"

A pair of strong hands grabbed her shoulder and shoved her towards her captor.

Hikari felt hot, moist breath breathing in her ear. She moved her head away from him and shivered her shoulder out of his grip to wipe her ear.

"Do you really not like me _that much_ Hikari?"

_Shinji._

Hikari became stiff and tense as Shinij's lips were on her ear as he whispered to her.

The pair looked up as the lights came on again. Laughter from the television was ringing in their ears. Hikari looked up at Shinji and he looked down at her.

Their eyes met with a crash.

_Shinji was drunk_, Hikari noticed. _And she couldn't just leave him like that_. _He doesn't act himself when he's drunk_. He's _irrational_. _Stupid_. And he _doesn't think_.

She needed to sober him up_, for her own safety._

"Shinji," Hikari timidly asked.

Shinji snorted, "Speak up troublesome girl."

"You're drunk," Hikari told him bluntly.

"Good lord, you have eyes. Way to state the obvious." His words slurred at the end.

Hikari quickly brainstormed some ways to sober him up and then she hit an idea.

They were in a honeymoon suite.

* * *

Hikari approached Shinji and loosened his tie.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shinji believed his eyes were deceiving him. _Surely she didn't want to…_

"You're drunk, get in the hot tub in the bathroom. The hot water will sober you up," Hikari explained.

_Of course not_, Shinij's thought finished.

Hikari pulled his jacket off him and threw it on the bed. Then she took his hand and led him into the bathroom, where she instructed him to strip off his clothes and put on a robe while she got the water ready.

* * *

"What are they doing?" Hakura asked, not trusting what her eyes just saw.

They had spent Shuu to fix the lighting in room 714 which he happily abided to, much to Kasumi's suspicion.

"Do we have cameras on them in the bathroom?" Kasumi asked.

"No, and from what I saw going on in the bedroom. I'm kind of glad," Shuu said, rubbing his eyes.

Satoshi continued to sleep soundly beside them.

"Okay Shuu, fix the sound." Kasumi commanded.

Shuu obliged, switching random switches to pretend he didn't know which the sound was.

He finally flicked the right switch because they heard running water.

"Sounds like they're getting in the hot tub! Uh-oh!" Hakura cheered.

"Doesn't prove they like each other," Shuu reminded her.

Suddenly Hikari stumbled out of the bathroom fully clothed.

Kasumi looked confused, "What the-"

"Okay just stay in there Shinji and you'll be sober in a while. Did you really have to get drunk tonight?" They heard Hikari asking Shinji.

"Well damn," Hakura pouted. "They need to get together already, seriously! This is aggravating!"

"That's not the only thing," Shuu muttered under his breath.

Unluckily for him, Hakura heard him.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!"

* * *

Hikari cracked the bathroom door open and pecked in, "How are you feeling?"

"Much better, thank you." Shinji brushed some hair out of his face. "You can come inside. It's okay."

Hikari walked in but stayed a safe distance from the hot tub.

There was an awkward silence for a moment.

Hikari winced and quietly massaged her forehead. Her head was pounding.

Shinji observed her behavior, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she quickly dismissed.

Shinji smirked, "And after you lectured me for drinking on Halloween. Princess herself drinks half a bottle of champagne. You need to get in here to, to sober yourself."

"I don't have a bathing suit," she protested.

"Well neither do I," Shinji challenged.

Hikari winced again and Shinji sighed.

"Get undressed and put that robe on. Get in wearing the robe. I'll wear the towel when I get out. And don't worry I won't try anything on you."

Hikari picked up a towel and set it next to him, while grabbing the hanging robe. She kicked off her shoes and stripped herself of her tights. Then she put the robe over like she was a ghost. She shrugged off the sleeves of her dress and it fell to the floor. Unsnapping her bra, she held it and stepped out of her panties. She hid them as she balled up her dress and carefully set them in the pile with her shoes and tights. Then she put the robe on properly and tied it. Throwing her headband on the floor, she stepped in the hot water.

"Ah," Hikari sunk in, remembering the time she and Hakura went to the spa and it was exactly like that.

Shinji slashed water on her face, waking her back up but also making all her make-up start to drip.

"Hey!" Hikari yelled. She tried wiping her make-up away but it ended up smudging all over her face. Shinji actually cracked a smile as he wet a washcloth and carefully slid toward her.

He held her chin and wiped her face clean of all the cosmetics. Then he looked at the amount of make-up that came off.

"Wow, I always knew your face was fake," he teased.

"Shut up!" Hikari said slashing him and smiling at him.

"So does the 'perfect' Hikari Berlitz want to explain why she was drinking?" Shinji's face went serious again after the out of character moment.

Hikari looked up, embarrassed. "Well I was trying to calm my nerves because I was scared after Shuu told us that story about this room."

Shinji scoffed. "You actually believed him?"

"Was I not supposed to?"

"Shuu has never told a true thing in his life. This is his father's hotel. He only told that story to scare Hakura into his lap but," Hikari cut his off.

"But she started crying instead," she finished giggling.

The two sat silently soaking up the warm water and reliving memories.

Shinji had as much as he could take of storytelling with Hikari. "Well I think I'm good. Don't look."

Hikari squeezed her eyes shut as Shinji stepped out of the hot tub and wrapped a towel around her waist.

"It's okay now."

Hikari opened her eyes and Shinji was sitting on the steps wearing his pants. No shirt.

"You're staying in here with me?" Hikari asked, flattered.

"Well I'll be bored as hell out there. Football's not on tonight," Shinji stated simply.

Hikari slid closer to him and their faces were inches apart.

* * *

The both of them were thinking the same thing: the last time they were in that same position.

After Kasumi blew it out for her sixteenth birthday, they had played truth or dare after the party. It had only been Satoshi, Kasumi, Shinji, Shuu, Hikari, Hakura, Nozomi, Kengo and Jun.

It was right after Shinji had stuffed a sock in Jun's mouth because he was talking way too much. Shinji never had much patience for stupidity, except for Hikari's (which Shuu always had much pleasure in teasing him about).

The truth was that he never hated Hikari and he never believed that she hated him too.

Anyway as Shinji was stuffing a sock down Jun's throat, Shuu has a great idea to dare Shinji to kiss Hikari. So Shinji had calmly walked over to a still in shock Hikari and sat down next to her and crashed his lips onto hers. It was one sweet kiss. His favorite, and the only kiss he counted as real.

When they both slowly pulled away, they stared at each other until Satoshi whistled.

Shinji still looked at the girl in front of him.

He may be mean, cold, rude and a lot of other words that Hikari used to describe him but he was not a liar, especially not to himself. He had feelings for Hikari. He knew that.

No one knew, except for Shuu (which Shinji never remembered telling him).

He couldn't help what would happen next.

* * *

Hikari smiled as she looked into Shinji's eyes. He wanted to kiss her, she could tell.

And secretly…she kind of wanted to as well.

She analyzed the decision to kiss him in her head, there was one good result and about a bazillion bad results.

_Let's just see where this leads us._

Hikari tilted her head up and quickly kissed him. He returned the kisses. It was one lustful kiss after another. Until Shinji lifted her out of the hot tub and gave her time to dry herself. She replaced the wet robe she was wearing with a fresh one.

What she knew was inevitable was one of the bazillion bad results but it felt too right to stop now.

Shinji picked her up and she wrapped her legs around him. He carried her and dropped her onto the bed, where they attached lips.

They kissed liked they were in love.

* * *

Back in the camera room, their friends finally realized the two of them had ended up back in the bedroom.

All they saw was a shirtless Shinji and a robe-covered Hikari kissing on the bed until Shuu just shut down all the cameras.

Shuu shook his head.

"And here I thought they would keep it at least PG…"

* * *

**HAPPY HALLOWEEN!**

**This is one of my favorite holidays. I thought it called for a fic.**

**Have a terrifying Halloween!**

**Review please! And Updates on everything else are on the way!**

**SURFERGURL14**


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